“The Oscars are so anti excellence, so mediocre it hurts to watch. CODA fits the Academy perfectly.” — RossoVeneziano
Jeffrey Wells spoke to an “industry guy” who claims that his wide inner circle of Academy voters “are mostly talking about CODA.’” This aligns well with last night’s stunning CODA victory at the Screen Actors Guild awards.
Another filmmaker claims that “CODA has the heart factor going for it, despite its plodding execution at times. ”Power of the Dog” has zero support from the industry. It hasn’t won any guild awards. “Belfast” could benefit but that feels hollow at this point. “CODA” could start picking up momentum from the SAG win.”
Inch-by-inch, day-by-day, we are approaching this sad truth — a world where CODA might be crowned Best Picture over Campion, PTA, Spielberg …
As mentioned countless times before, 2021 was one of the weakest years we’ve ever had at the movies, but there is no goddamn reason to give a Best Picture prize to CODA. None. Zilch. However, it might very well happen, the stars are aligning brightly for Siam Heder’s film, an enjoyable feel-good endeavour that plays like a high-quality movie of the week.
We are living in very dark era, and CODA has a good narrative for these troubled times. It would also be the first Sundance film to win Best Picture. Yes, it has no Editing and Directing nods to its name and Oscar history has shown that you do need one of those for a legit shot at Best Picture. And yet, it’ll all come down to the PGA winner, if CODA does pull off another surprise win within that voting body then all bets are off.
Best Picture (Ranked) 02.28.22
The Power of the Dog
CODA
Belfast
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
West Side Story
Drive My Car
Dune
Don’t Look Up
Nightmare Alley
Exarchopoulos will of course forever be known for her lead turn opposite Léa Seydoux in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” released in 2013.